


Five Times Someone Found Out Tim Was Dead

by BitterSilence



Series: Young Justice: Under the Red Hood [3]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Age Reversal, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Gen, batfamily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2013-09-05
Packaged: 2017-12-25 16:12:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/955154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BitterSilence/pseuds/BitterSilence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>...And one time someone found out he was still alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Someone Found Out Tim Was Dead

**1\. Bruce Wayne/Batman**

 

> **January 15, 2006**
> 
> **Sarajevo, Bosnia**
> 
> **2205 Hours**

Batman jumped off his motorcycle and sprinted towards the warehouse where Robin’s tracers had him located. It’d been nearly an hour since he’d lost sight of Robin when the boy ran off in pursuit of the Joker. There was no telling what had happened during that time.

He was a good twenty yards from the warehouse when it exploded. Batman paused to take cover from the blast under his cape. He was far enough from the explosion to avoid any damage. But Tim…

Batman rushed towards the wreckage of the building. In seconds, he spotted Tim’s gloved hand poking out from under a sheet of metal roofing. Batman threw it off of Tim and then refused to understand what he saw.

The cowl stayed on, but it was Bruce, not Batman, who reacted. He knelt down slowly and gently cradled Tim to his chest. The boy’s neck was broken, along with several ribs. He’d been beaten badly before the explosion.

Robin. _Son._ Dead.

“Tim…”

 

**2\. Jason Todd/Red Robin**

 

> **January 16, 2006**
> 
> **Gotham City - Batcave**
> 
> **0630 Hours**

Jason flipped off of the pommel horse the instant the Batjet touched down. Bruce and Tim were _finally_ back from chasing the Joker around the world. He walked towards the landing pad with an impish grin. (He might’ve put pink hair dye in Tim’s shampoo. Maybe. Possibly.) Jason’s cheer diminished a bit when only Batman walked out of the plane. Was Tim seriously still working somewhere? Jason wouldn’t put it past him.

“Hey B! Where’s Tim?”

Bruce…flinched? Then removed the cowl. There was something broken in his expression, and if that wasn’t scary, Jason didn’t know what was. Batman didn’t _break._ He swallowed around the fear rising in his throat. “B? What happened to Tim?”

Bruce slumped. “Tim’s dead, Jason. The Joker killed him.”

 

 **3.** **Damian Wayne/Nightwing**

 

> **January 16, 2006**
> 
> **Gotham City – Batcave**
> 
> **0745 Hours**

Damian let out an irritated growl as he stalked down the stairs to the Batcave. Timothy hadn’t sent him the case notes he’d promised to, and neither Timothy nor Todd were answering their communicators.

Damian frowned, confused, when he located Bruce standing in front of some sort of glass case, similar to the ones in the trophy room, that hadn’t been in the Cave last night. Todd was beside him, curled into himself like the small child he often was. Pennyworth was watching them from the peripheral, exuding a nearly palpable aura of sadness.

It didn’t take detective work to figure out something was amiss. “Father?” Damian called out neutrally.

Bruce slowly turned and moved away from his previous position to face him, eyes tired, pained, and grieving, purposely revealing the contents of the case he’d been guarding.

Timothy’s Robin uniform.

Damian had no words. Nobody needed to tell him what was happening, because he knew, just by seeing the case; Timothy, his successor and brother, was dead.

 **4.** **Stephanie Brown/Batgirl**

 

> **January 17, 2006**
> 
> **Gotham City – Gotham U Dorms**
> 
> **0300 Hours**

Steph was rudely awoken from the sweet, sweet comfort of sleep by the all-too-familiar sound of fingers tapping against her window. She scowled at the intruder – Red Robin, the newest bird – before opening the window.

“I told you to leave me alone! I need to study for finals!” Steph snarled. Damn Bats and their _Mission._ No meant no!

Red Robin looked slightly alarmed. He shifted uncomfortably on the fire escape. “Um,” he mumbled.

Steph rolled her eyes. “Oh get in here before you catch something and Daddy Bats blames me for it,” she groused, yanking the window open wider. Red Robin stumbled in, barely managing to avoid tripping over Steph’s bed. It was cute, really. “So, what’s up?”

Red Robin stared up at her for a moment, then buried his head in his hands. “It’s…I…God. It’s Robin. Tim. He. The Joker killed him. I’m so, so sorry.”

Steph stared numbly at him. Tim, dead? Oh god. _Jesus._ Fuck. “Get out,” she whispered eventually.

“Batgirl – “

“I said _get out!_ ”

 

 **5.** **Ra’s al Ghul**

 

> **January 20, 2006**
> 
> **Iraq**
> 
> **1200 Hours**

Ra’s was surprised, to say the least, when he received word of the second Robin’s demise. More than just a bit disappointed as well. The boy had shown so much _potential_. He could have very well surpassed his mentor, given enough time.

But then, perhaps he still could.

Ra’s had some arrangments to make.

 

**+1. Roy Harper**

 

> **May 28, 2011**
> 
> **England**
> 
> **0130 Hours**

Roy dodged backward and threw a smoke bomb in the ninja’s face before knocking him out cold. He paused for a moment to survey his surroundings. Roy had been hoping to find clues of his…donor’s whereabouts in this old Cadmus base, but unfortunately for him, a branch of the League of Assassins was currently occupying it.

He stiffened when gunshots echoed through the walls. Judging from the sound, the shooter was close – the next room, probably. But the League rarely used guns outside of assassinations – too easy, or something. Was someone else attacking the base?

Roy notched an arrow that would release sleeping gas on impact before he snuck into the next room – a library of some sort. He rolled behind a nearby bookshelf and peeked out.

Two bodies lay spread-eagled on the linoleum floor, bleeding heavily. Three other ninja were attacking a fourth man in equally dark clothing.

“Call the command – gah!” one of the ninja tried to order before being cut off by a bullet to the stomach. The next was knocked out with an impressive and kick to the jaw that probably broke something in the victim’s face. The third ninja tried to attack the fourth man from behind, but ended up being slammed into the floor with a very nice judo throw instead. Whoever this person was, they were good.

Roy edged closer but didn’t relax or leave the cover of the bookshelf. The enemy of my enemy is my friend unless, of course, they’re really not.

Then the man stepped into the dim lighting and Roy almost dropped his bow in shock.

Roy had only met the second Robin once and seen a handful of pictures of him, but there was no mistaking him even under a black domino. He’d lost the baby fat and aged, sure, but it would take more than hiding his cheekbones to fool Roy. The way he moved and held himself was all Bat. “…Robin?” he asked warily and stepped out from behind the bookshelf.

The man didn’t twitch when he revealed himself. He did grimace, however. “Red Arrow,” he said, neutral and controlled.

“Everyone thinks you’re _dead,_ ” Roy hissed.

“It’s better this way," Robin-the-Second responded flatly as he bent down.

Roy was sorely tempted to start yelling and throwing things at the bastard. ‘Better this way’ his ass! Roy may not have watched the Bats grieve, but he knew that none of them had been the same since Robin-the-Second was murdered.

Robin-the-Second stood up, this time holding a cracked, bright red helmet. It looked vaguely familiar. Where - ?

Roy took in the rest of the not-so-dead man in front of him, and it clicked. A leather jacket, black Kevlar shirt and pants, two handguns holstered at his hips, a sheath for a large knife behind the one on his right, and a bright red helmet.

Red Hood. The (relatively) new vigilante that wasn’t afraid to kill or maim or torture to get what he wanted. Who was formerly a Robin.

“What happened to you?” Roy breathed.

There was a wry twist to Robin’s – the Red Hood’s – mouth when he answered, “Ask Black Canary about the Lazarus Pits some time.”

He still did that non-answer thing all Bats did, even five years later.

“The person I was died five years ago. If you respect him or his family at all, you’ll let him stay that way.” A pause. “Please.”

“Wait --!” Roy shouted as the Red Hood reached into his jacket for something and tossed it into the air. The room rapidly filled with smoke and by the time it cleared, the Red Hood was long gone.

 

* * *

 

 It was the please that stopped Roy from immediately contacting Batman or the Justice League. Instead, he asked Dinah what she knew about Lazarus Pits. Later, he got his hands on every piece of information about the Red Hood and Robin-the-Second he could.

In the end, Roy decided to respect the Red Hood’s decision and didn’t tell anyone who was really beneath the helmet. Resurrection had broken the former Robin, glued him together haphazardly, and spat him out. The person that came back wasn't the one that went in. The Bats had moved on as much as they could, and who was he to reopen old wounds? Especially when they couldn’t be healed properly. Someone like the Red Hood had no place with the Bats, and he knew it.

Roy still kept an eye on the wayward vigilante, however. So when the original Roy had trouble adjusting to, well, everything, he told him where to find the one person who could understand.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this is where we get into the 'fusion' and 'alternate universe' parts of this series.
> 
> The sixteen missing hours at the end of Season 1 of YJ NEVER OCCURRED. Handwavieness has fixed it. (It has something to do with Bart Allen landing farther in the past. Probably.) Thus, the events of Season 2 have not and will not happen. Aquagirl/Tula still died, but Kaldur never went undercover. The original Roy Harper was found around November of 2011 instead of in 2015.


End file.
